How Could I Forget
by Suigetsu Kushina36
Summary: A simple Halloween plan to spend the night in an abandoned mansion. Everything seems fine, until one member suddenly gets sick. Is he going mad? What happened to him? What will happen to the others? Character death, horror and mentions of inappropriate content. Written for a Creative Writing assignment. [no smut! :'(]


Have you ever had that feeling that you were losing your mind? That maybe you forgot something important to you, like your name or cherished memories? What was the cause of that feeling? Were you busy? Stressed out? Did you just grow up and it didn't seem important to you anymore?

How would you fair if suddenly everyone around started feeling these symptoms? Like it was a plague, and it spread rapidly through the human body, causing all sorts of mental catastrophes. You've forgotten your name, your friends, where you are, your entire sanity. Everything important to you is missing from your memory. That would drive you insane, wouldn't it? That would drive anyone insane…

Horrifyingly, this isn't just some scary ghost story you would tell your friends around a fire just to scare them. This is something I can never forget. It's the nightmare that I'm living and I can't wake up. The weak of mind may want to read a different story. This gruesome tale can leave you paralyzed. But if you think you can take it, listen well. You won't ever be able to forget.

Today was just like any other day in Shiganshina. Everybody milling about through the town, doing their daily chores and taking care of the younger children. Just like any other day I was hanging out with my friends out in one of the vast fields of overgrown plants, just relaxing. My best friend, Eren, was sitting quietly with his lover while we all listened to Jean tell us some random store that I was more than certain he was making up as he went along. That was Jean for you. I guess I wasn't really paying any attention to him anyway. In fact the only one who was listening was Marco, but only because he had this huge crush on Jean. Everyone else was occupying themselves with anything else until he stopped talking.

I was thinking about how all my friends were finding people they were enamoured with and I was left out. Eren and Levi seemed happy together, Marco had that crush on Jean and I could see that Jean liked him too, Connie and Sasha were together and, even though it doesn't work out for her, Mikasa was still watching over Eren. I didn't like anybody that way. I don't know why, I guess I just didn't really care about relationships. I was just glad to have good friends, even though I get frustrated sometimes when love seems to overpower friendship and I get ignored…

"…and so I ended up keeping the dog, but he didn't make up much longer through the winter. Rest in peace, Freezer…" Jean said, finally finishing his story.

"You have such a good heart to save a poor lost dog from the freezing cold like that," Marco said, his eyes full of admiration.

"He would if that story were true…" Eren mumbled. "Okay, now that horse face has shut up-

"Watch it, Jaeger."

"I have a really fun idea of what we should do tomorrow."

"Oh yeah. Tomorrow's Halloween, isn't it?" I asked my bright eyed friend.

"Mhm. And I thought we could have a lot of fun if we-

"Wait a minute!" Sasha yelled. "This isn't gonna be like your last big idea, is it? I don't think I can handle another Eren Jaeger outing like what happened on Valentine's Day."

Eren turned red and tensed. "I told you guys not to go in there!"

"You were being loud! I thought you were dying or something."

"I told him to be quiet," Levi said beside him.

"Shut up!" Eren hissed.

"Anyway!" I interrupted. "Eren, what was your idea?"

"Thank you. Okay, so I was thinking we should all spend the night at that abandoned mansion that's down the road from Connie's house. Connie, you said you checked it out last month right?"

"Yeah, but not the inside, just the yard."

"Oh, even better. So none of us knows what it looks like on the inside?" Everyone in our group looked at each other and shook their heads. "Good. So what do you think? We can all just lay out in there and tell ghost stories or something. It'll be a lot of fun."

Our group sat quietly thinking about the idea. I was in agreement, it did sound fun and spooky. What else would you do on Halloween?

"I don't know. Still sounds like Valentine's Day," Sasha said.

"We aren't gonna do anything this time!" Eren yelled at her, Levi grabbing his arm to calm him down. I think he would've smacked Sasha. "We're all gonna stay in the same room, okay? If no one's alone then that won't happen this time."

Sasha stayed quiet for a while then sighed. "Alright, I'm in."

"Me too," I said. Everyone else nodded with us and said they were in.

"Okay. So tomorrow we'll meet at Connie's house at around five. Then we'll head out to the mansion, so make sure you bring everything with you. Levi, be the adult."

"Sure," Levi said unenthusiastically.

"What will we need to bring?" I asked.

"You should bring clothes for the night of course, and a flashlight- OH! No, Armin, bring that old coal mining lantern your dad has."

"I'll have to ask, but as long as we don't break it he'll let us use it. And if you want I can bring food for all of us."

"You should. You're a great cook," Sasha said to me. I knew there was a light dust of pink on my cheeks then and I shrugged shyly. "Oh, but you have to bring those, uh, what did you call them?"

"The maple biscuits?"

"Yeah but you had a weird name for them."

"Oh, I don't remember. I made it up."

"So we're okay with food if Armin's cooking. What else do we have that we'll need?" Eren asked. We talked for the next few hours about what we would do tomorrow when we got there. Levi wanted to tell us a scary story since he was good at scaring people. Sasha wanted to play truth or dare, but Eren said no since it would probably get inappropriate. It really sounded like a fun day. I was excited for tomorrow.

"Dad, can I borrow your lantern for when I go to the mansion tonight?" I asked from in the kitchen.

"Don't break it."

"I won't. Thank you." I woke up this morning feeling overly excited. I hurried myself to get cleaned up and dressed so I could work on our food. I know it wasn't even noon yet, but I had a lot of cooking to do and I wanted it to be perfect. I still hadn't packed everything I needed either…

I heard a knock on the door and my dad answered it. It was Eren and Mikasa. "You're cooking?" Eren asked, wandering into the kitchen.

"Yeah. I wanted to make sure I got everything done. Do you want to be the taste tester?"

"Of course!" he said, throwing himself into a kitchen chair.

"I'll help make the food," Mikasa said.

"Oh, thank you."

"So, do you have all your stuff ready? Did you get the okay to use that lantern?" Eren asked, eyeing the cooling tray of maple biscuits. I slapped his hand when he tried to reach for one and gave him a stern look like a mother would.

"Yes, I did, but I haven't finished packing yet. I only packed my blanket and pillow so far."

"I'll do it!" Eren bolted out of the chair and started running to my room until I grabbed his arm.

"Hey, geez! Why do you want to pack my stuff so badly?"

"Because your room always smells good! And I want to pick your clothes." He pulled away from me and ran to my room, being scolded by my father on the way upstairs. I clicked my tongue and rolled my eyes. I would never understand his fascination with my room. Mikasa helped me cook the soup I had decided to make for our haunted house dinner. I could hear Eren's footsteps upstairs every once in a while, walking around my room. I wondered what he was going to have me wear tomorrow. It was a slightly frightening thought.

"Armin, do you think we can go to the shop after you're done with the food? Levi asked me to get something for him," Eren said, walking back downstairs.

"Sure. Hey." I held a spoon full of soup out to him for him to taste.

"It's good. Could use something though…"

"Like?" I continued stirring the soup and opened the cabinet above me that hid our spices.

"Liiike…little bit of garlic and some rosemary," Eren decided, reaching up over me to get in the cabinet. I felt my face heat up, but I can't tell if it was because he was practically pushing me into the boiling pot or if it was because he really shouldn't have been that close. He managed to pull out the ingredients he needed, though, and threw them into the pot. "There, now let's see." I had him taste it again. "Perfect."

Eren snuck over to bother his adopted sister while she made the snacks. We were finished and heading to the market down the street by twelve-thirty. Levi had apparently asked Eren to get him a black light flashlight and something else that Eren had to assure me was absolutely NOT coming to the mansion with him. I don't wanna know what that was for. It even embarrassed Eren…

We decided to go hang out at Levi's house with our supplies until five. We started out just talking about our plans, but ended up in this weird situation of Levi trying to bet Eren to wear a dress, which he did, but he took it off after a few minutes. Levi and I still took a few pictures of him though. He'll probably kill us later.

"Okay, ready to go?" Levi asked us. I nodded and watched Eren push passed him and open the door, running out and down the road. Levi rolled his eyes. I'm surprised he put up with Eren.

We sat at Connie's house for about twenty minutes waiting for everyone to show up before we headed to the mansion. I walked with Marco behind everyone else because, of course, Eren and Jean were being obnoxious in the front of the pack.

"So? Everyone excited, we're almost there," Eren said, turning around and walking backwards.

"I'm excited to eat Armin's food," Sasha replied.

"I just wanna get there so I can sit down. This bag is heavy…" Connie complained.

"I'm excited that we're going to be together for another 'Eren Jaeger holiday adventure'," Marco said beside me.

"Aw, thanks Marco. Okay, so Levi said he won't tell his story until it gets dark, so we can do something else until then. Anyone up for hide and seek in a haunted house?"

"That sounds childish," Jean said.

"And you promised me we would stay in the same room, so you and General Smut up there don't get private time," Sasha yelled.

"He was a captain! And we'll hide separately so shut up."

"I don't know, I think we could get lost in there," Jean piped up.

"No, it'll be fun. C'mon." We came up to the tall building, stepping up the porch steps to the door. The door wasn't locked so we stepped inside and put our bags down on the floor, choosing our sleeping spots. I was lying between Mikasa and Eren, Eren sleeping by Levi, obviously. With that done, we decided to eat a little bit for a snack before we did anything else, so we all sat in a circle in the middle of the room.

"Guys…something's wrong," Jean suddenly said while we were eating our food. "I feel weird…"

"You mean weirder?" Eren joked.

"I'm serious Eren."

"Oh…maybe you ate too many of those maple biscuits."

"… Yeah, maybe that's all it is."

"Well…we should just relax for a bit before we do anything, then. So, I guess I can tell a story for now."

"I thought I was doing that," Levi whined, which made most of us laugh.

"You're telling your story later. Mine's gonna suck anyway. Okay here goes, this is a story about…" Eren paused to think for a moment. "The undead painter!" Eren started overdramatically telling some crazy story about an artist that died and started haunting the artists that were better than him. It made everyone laugh. I glanced at Jean, who seemed to be completely out of it.

"And there on the top of the stairs in red was painted a big d-

All of a sudden Jean had an incredibly violent coughing fit that caused everyone to look at him. Marco patted his shoulder.

"You okay, Jean?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Jean answered, laying his hand on Marco's arm so he could stand up. He got a confused look on his face as he looked around the room. "What's goin' on?"

"What do you mean? I was just telling a story, sit down," Eren grumbled.

"What? Why? I'm goin' home, come on Marco."

"Huh? But, what about the Haunted Mansion night?" Marco asked.

"What? What haunted mansion night?" Jean looked around again.

"C'mon, Jean. Stop messing around, it's not funny," Eren sighed. For a while everyone just stared at Jean, who was standing there looking toward the door. He wasn't moving at all and he didn't respond to Eren. "Jean!"

"What?" He finally turned around and just glared at Eren. "Whatever, I'm going home."

"What?" Sasha said. "Jean are you chickening out?"

"On what? What are we even doing? Where are…" Jean stopped and got that zoned out look again. Something didn't seem right with him. Maybe he really had gotten sick from something. He was acting kind of weird.

"Hey, Jean, I think you need to go lie down," Levi suggested. Jean didn't respond to him. "Jean…Jean!" That got his attention. Jean looked down at Levi and was about to say something, but Levi stopped him. "Jean, go lie down, you must have got sick from something."

Jean looked at him, confused and frustrated, but nodded and walked over to his bag on the floor to relax. I was kind of worried about him, he seemed really confused. What made him sick like that?

Eren continued his story, that was inappropriate and random, and we clapped for him anyway. I kept glancing over at Jean over on the floor. He didn't move anything the whole time, he just had a distant look while he was lying there. I didn't understand what was wrong with him.

"Okay, okay," Eren said, still laughing. "So, what should we do now?"

"We still have that hide and seek idea, right?" I asked.

"Oh yeah. Let's do that." We stood up and stretched. "I'll go see if Jean's feeling any better," Eren said. He walked over to Jean to get him up. Jean jumped when Eren walked over and I heard them talking for a moment until Jean got up and slowly stepped away from Eren. After that, Eren came back over to us. "Jean's in, but he's still acting really weird. So, anyway, who's going to count first?"

We all looked at each other and yelled "not it!" until it landed on Mikasa, who now had to count. We all went in different directions while she sat in a corner to count. Levi and I had to stay together to hide to put Sasha at ease, or she wouldn't play. We went upstairs and searched the rooms for a good spot to hide. Levi insisted we try to find the best hiding spot we could.

We quietly ran down one of the halls that had a staircase that led downstairs, and at the top of that staircase sat Jean with a strange look on his face.

"Jean?" I said quietly. "What are you doing?" He jumped and looked up at me in horror like he was afraid of me. I walked over to him slowly.

"NO! Stay away!" he yelled. Levi grabbed my wrist to make me stop walking. What was going on?

"Jean, it's okay. It's only us, Levi and Armin." Levi said calmly. He must be able to see it too. Whatever was wrong with Jean, it was causing him distress. He needed to be handled calmly.

"No. You're part of them. Don't touch me. You're monsters like them, they told me!"

"Jean what are you talking about? We aren't trying to hurt you," I said, walking towards him again.

"STAY BACK! I won't let you take me! You won't ever take me!" Jean jumped up and pressed himself to the wall behind him. He swung his arm up, knocking down a picture frame that through glass all around us. Jean bent down and picked up a big shard, holding it tightly till blood ran down his arm.

"Jean what are you doing?!" I screamed. His breathing became heavy and his body shook. I started to run toward him but I had realized too late. "Jean!" He Brought the glass up and cut clean across his neck. His body went limp and fell to the floor, completely still. My legs lost all their strength and I sank to the floor screaming. What was going on here? What happened to him? How did any of this even start?

Levi grabbed me and helped pull me up after I'd stopped screaming. I heard him telling me we had to go find the others, but he sounded so distant. All I saw was Jean's lifeless body, until Levi covered my eyes and turned me around.

"Come on, Armin, we have to go, now."

"I know, I know...I'm sorry, just hold on." I stood for a moment trying to slow my breathing down, then suddenly there was a scream from down the hall. I recognized the voice and my body went cold.

"Eren..." Levi said, almost silently. I looked up at him and his eyes were wide. He grabbed my wrist and walked quickly down the hall towards that sound. "Eren," he called, louder this time. We could hear someone running towards us and Levi moved faster.

"Levi, I-I'm sure he's fine. He's probably okay."

"We have to find him," he said sternly. We walked toward the corner when suddenly somebody rounded it and ran into Levi.

"Levi, I'm scared! I want to go home, please, I just wanna go home..." Eren cried and held tightly to his boyfriend, who let go of me to comfort him.

"Eren, what happened?" I asked.

"It was Marco. I don't know what got into him, but he...he started acting like Jean had, and...then all of a sudden he started screaming and didn't want us near him. I-I tried to get him to calm down, but then...oh God..." Eren couldn't finish and just cried.

"The same thing just happened to Jean," Levi said. "He started screaming at us and then he killed himself."

"Jean's dead?!" Eren yelled. "Oh my God...Oh my God, what is going on here!"

"Eren calm down. We have to go find the others, right now," Levi suggested.

"I was with Sasha and Connie when Marco died. We were all downstairs, they might still be there."

"Good, then you two go get them, I'll go find Mikasa and we'll stay there until you get back," I said.

"I don't think we should split up like that, it's too dangerous," Levi said. "Plus we don't even know what caused those too to act that way.

"Wait...when Jean started coughing, Marco touched him, didn't he?" I asked.

"Yeah, I think so," Eren answered.

Could it be that there was something Jean had that he gave to Marco? But then, how did Jean get sick? Something here just didn't add up. "I may just be crazy, but do you think...do you think maybe there's some illness around here that we're getting?"

"What do you mean?" Eren asked, frightened.

"I mean, Jean started feeling sick earlier before he began acting weird, and Marco had touched him and started showing the same symptoms, but I don't really think that had much to do with him getting sick too. Perhaps there's a disease in this house somewhere...and that would mean...we all have it." Eren's eyes widened and he started shaking. Levi held him tighter.

"Eren?" A voice from downstairs caught our attention. It was Sasha. "Connie doesn't feel well, I don't know what to do! You guys have to help me! Eren? Armin?"

I wanted to help her. I wanted to hope that there was a way to save her. But I just couldn't. "Come on. Hurry!" I said quietly, pulling the others into a small, cluttered room near us. I shut the door and locked it so they couldn't get in. "I'm sorry, but...I can't watch this happen. If there's a chance I may die, I'd want to die with you two."

"I understand," Levi said. Eren just pushed his back against the door and slowly slid down it. Levi sat next to him on one side and I did the same on the other. If we died, we died together.

"This disease targets the brain I think," I started. It makes you feel disoriented at first, then...you start to forget things...and finally, it drives you to madness...and you die."

"I don't wanna forget you guys..." Eren said quietly. I agreed. I can only imagine how Jean and Marco felt within those last few moments of life. Scared, confused, alone even. In a way, I hoped this disease would just kill me now...

"Remember that time...when Jean got that new game?" Eren spoke up suddenly. I knew what he was doing...

"Yeah..." I said. "We all got in a fight over who would play first."

Eren laughed half-heartedly. "And then Sasha ate too much of that garlic dip."

"And she was throwing up for the next three hours," I finished. Eren and I laughed together, a real laugh this time. "Remember when Annie still lived here?" Eren nodded. "And when she kicked you so hard you fell on your back, and swore you wouldn't talk to her ever again?"

"Shut up. Annie had a really hard kick."

"I know. But you still talked to her, and she became part of the group before she moved."

"Yeah. Good old Annie..." We were quiet for a moment, just remembering someof the things we did together. I know Eren was doing the same thing I was; trying to think of our best memories while we still had them...

"Remember when I moved in," Levi said next to us. We looked at him in shock for a moment, then we both nodded.

Eren smiled. "You moved in, and my mom told us to go make you feel welcome here, so we went over...and then, you kicked me off your porch."

"Yeah. You said you wanted to be in the military..." Levi said. "And that's when you called me a Dream Crusher." Eren only laughed.

"We didn't get along then. I always found ways to get you to yell at me. You hated me so much."

"And then three weeks later, you guys started dating," I spoke up. "Mikasa was so mad."

"Yeah. She was sure mom would kill me," Eren laughed. Then he became completely serious. "She didn't...instead she...held me tight and said...'that's my boy, following his heart no matter what his mind says...'"

Levi and I both just looked at him sadly. Eren started to tear up again. Eren's mother was always a smart woman, and I get the feeling she could see that Levi was a good person who would treat her son right. We would all miss her.

We heard a scream again and we all jumped. Eren buried his head in his arms and cried again. Connie was dead. Poor Sasha must have seen it. Now she was next...

We sat there quietly, just listening to everything around us. Not long after that, we heard Sasha screaming again before she went completely silent. It was quiet for a long while after that. We were afraid to move, or speak, or even look at each other. What was going to happen to us? Would we even survive? That was unlikely dream.

"Eren?" a quiet voice said outside the door.

"Oh God..." Eren whispered. The tears came again and he bit down on his own arm to keep himself quiet. Levi and I looked at each other for a moment then wrapped our arms around Eren.

"Eren, I can't remember what's going on right now, but I think we should go home. It's really late." I could hear Eren's teeth squeak against the fabric of his sleeve the harder he bit down. Mikasa was out there, and she was already infected. There was no helping her now. "Eren, where are you? I know you're here, we should really..." She trailed off for a moment and it was silent.

No one dared to make a sound, we only listened. Mikasa wasn't talking anymore and there was no sign that she was near us at all right now. Then we heard whispering that didn't even seem to be real words. It continued for a while, making Eren cover his ears, until it stopped. A horrible scream broke through the silence and then the thump of something hitting the floor echoed around us. That was it.

Eren sobbed loudly now. The three of us were all that was left, the others already dead. Now we just waited in the dark silence for our time to come, when our minds would go bad and we would forget everything.

For us, that time never came...

"Armin?" I heard Eren's small voice call to me, accompanied loud beeping. I opened my eyes slowly, staring up and white. "Armin." I sat up slowly and looked over at Eren laying in a bed next to me. He sighed in relief it sounded like. "Thank God, you're alright."

"Eren, what happened?" I tried to think about what happened. I remembered hearing Mikasa scream and knowing she was dead. Everything was a blur after that.

"We fell asleep in that room together... Some people came by to look at the house and noticed there was a strange chemical leaking out of the windows. The chemical was something that made people go insane and kill themselves. So they sent people into the house to investigate it, I guess...and they found us... We're the only one's that survived."

I was completely shocked. I didn't understand this. How? How did we survive? Everyone else died.

"We almost suffered the same fate," I heard Levi announce, walking up behind me.

"Why didn't we?" I asked.

"Because, when we were at my house we were drinking that tea. There was a natural chemical in it that stalls the effect. They caught us just in time so no damage was done and they cleaned the chemical out of our systems."

"Mikasa never drank that tea..." Eren said solemnly.

I sighed sadly. I only wished we would have known... "We'll be okay...right?" I asked.

They both looked at me for a moment before Levi answered. "Yeah. We'll be fine... There's going to be a mass funeral tomorrow, we'll be out of the hospital by then..."

"Okay..." I mumbled. At that moment, it seemed like the world was cruel. It wasn't fair that we survived when all of our friends died. However, There was still one thing that shined some light on this dark situation. We would never forget our friends, because we still had our memories. That was enough for us.


End file.
